Heading to Boulder next week for the Half and really looking fwd to it. Any top tips for the altitude and possible hills? We are coming from 5’ above sea level and months of flat flat riding… so any tips appreciated,
thanks in advance
Weeman
I wouldn’t worry about hills on the half it is mostly rolling. The beginning part of the bike course is a false flat so don’t freak out when you are going slower than you think you should. Stay hydrated. It is a great race so have fun!
Viagra. Seriously. There has been quite a bit of research done on it. The same reason it, uhm, helps your johnson is what makes it work - it dilates your arteries. One of the athletes I coach, who goes XC skiing a lot in the winter, tried it and found it to help quite a bit.
Altitude
One of the quirkiest presentations was about the effect of viagra (sildenafil) on endurance performance at a simulated moderately high altitude of 3900 m. All 10 of the trained cyclists in the study performed a 6-km time trial worse at altitude than they would have at sea level, as you would expect, but four of them were much worse (15 min to complete the distance instead of 10 min). The extra impairment in these four cyclists disappeared when they consumed sildenafil before the performance test. There was little effect of the sildenafil on the other six cyclists at altitude, and little effect on all 10 cyclists at sea level. How come? By dilating arterioles, sildenafil reversed the excessive hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction that limited cardiac output in the four cyclists. See the full paper in J Appl Physiol for more. I doubt whether there would be substantial benefit for any athletes at moderate altitude.
I did the long course last year on my 3rd day at altitude and it was fine. I just got back from two weeks in Boulder and I think the first 2-3 days are okay. The 4th day was miserable. Drink lots of water since it’s very dry and that helps with the altitude. I found if I wasn’t constantly drinking water I got those dehydration headaches. Wear tinted goggles since you’ll be swimming straight into the sun. This is probably the best organized race I’ve ever done. Have fun!
Unless you show up 3 weeks in advance to get used to the altitude and start generating red blood cells, my understanding is that you want to show up and race within 48 hours of arrival…after that your body starts to generate additional Red Blood Cells and you feel like a slug for at least 2-3 weeks.
Dev
Becuase of travel we are getting in on Wed night and racing Sunday am… so three and a half days later… I guess we will be on the cusp of slugging it then! Oh well, it will be my birthday on race day and the race is sponsored by a brewery, so I think all will be good 
Weeman
I’m from Colorado and go home several times a year (from sea level to 8000 ft). A few years ago I started taking Ginko biloba about a week before each trip and it really seems to help. I take 100mg twice a day, starting about a week out, and for the first day or two that I’m there.
Aside from that, there’s the general advice- take the first few days easy, stay very well hydrated, avoid alcohol. Boulder’s not that high, but everyone reacts differently to altitude.
Sorry, but don’t have any advice for the hills, except that they’re just like riding flats, only a little tilty 
have fun!
So far I need some Viagra and Ginko Biloba and drink loads… all sounds good to me. Cheers for the tips, anyone else got anything?
Weeman
Hey Weeman,
Welcome to Colorado! I’ll be doing the 5430 Long Course as well and I’ve lived in CO for almost 3 years now. You are going to love the race…it’s top notch. I think you’ll likely notice an unpleasant difference in both the swim and the run. Remember there is 20% less oxygen available than you are used to. I think you’ll be fine on the bike, as there are no big climbs, so it will be easy to stay aerobic. My advice is to start out the swim a little easier than you are accustomed to and get into a good rhythm. Race your bike as you always do and run as hard as your body allows. At least the air is thinner here, so in theory, you can go a wee bit faster on the bike : ).
Good luck and enjoy the trip!!
Diana
20%! I thought it was about a 4% difference? OK- swim easier shouldn’t be too difficult never really put that much effort into it anyway, ride normally should be fun and the run will be what it is…
Weeman
Beware of the dry air. It messes with your sense of how much you are sweating. Technical fabrics really do wick and dry a bit up here. You are sweating more than you think you are. Use extra sunscreen. The course has no shade and can be a real cooker.
When I was in college we trained at essentially zero elevation. Our worst dual meet ever, bar-none, was the time we swam against Air Force at Air Force. I was a distance guy, and I remember seeing their sign “The Air is Rare…7250 feet” every single lap for the whole race. The 1000 is 40 lengths of the pool, and I felt like I was going to do 7 laps in. My 1000 time was something like 30-40 seconds slower than what I would normally go at a dual meet, unrested, in-season. I guess that made it about 5% slower for me. I was not the only one who had a terrible meet. I think there was one guy out of 26 guys who had a decent swim. We absolutely got our asses kicked that day.
Interestingly enough at practice the next morning most of us felt significantly better in the water. For reference, our meet started 4 hours after getting off the plane. If you are looking to race “well”, then you should really acclimate for weeks. If you don’t have weeks, then just go and enjoy the day, and make sure you really hold back for the run. I would really suggest avoiding pushing the pace at all early on, as it will probably be harder to recover from strenuous efforts.
at a simulated moderately high altitude of 3900 m.
3900m (12795 ft.) is only considered moderately high? Are there a lot of endurance sports happening higher than that? Or was the term being used in a mountaineering sense?
-C